Bride of Chucky

Bride of Chucky is a 1998 American black comedy slasher film written by Don Mancini and directed by Ronny Yu. The fourth installment in the Child's Play franchise, it stars Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Ritter, Katherine Heigl, and Nick Stabile. Unlike the first three films, Bride of Chucky takes a markedly humorous turn towards self-referential parody. It also departs from the Andy Barclay storyline of the first three films, focusing mainly on series villain Chucky, a doll possessed by a serial killer, and his former lover and accomplice Tiffany, whose soul is also transferred into a doll.
Bride of Chucky was released on October 16, 1998. The film grossed over $50 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, Seed of Chucky, was released in 2004.
Plot
In Lockport, New York in 1998, Tiffany Valentine, Chucky's former lover and accomplice, bribes a police officer into giving her the shredded remains of Chucky's body from an evidence locker. After murdering the officer, Tiffany leaves with the doll, stitches him back together and reenacts the voodoo ritual to hopefully revive him so they can be together.
Appearing to have failed the ritual, Tiffany's goth admirer Damien arrives at her trailer, wanting to hang out. After looking back at the corner where she performed the ritual, Tiffany is shocked to find tiny footprints left behind, indicating the ritual worked and Chucky is alive. Tiffany then 'playfully' handcuffs Damien to the bed and puts Chucky on his chest. After his size is insulted, Chucky's head turns around until it faces Damien. Chucky then corrects him on his comment, then suffocates him to death with a pillow as Tiffany watches in excitement. Chucky and Tiffany talk, then she presents Chucky with a ring he had left behind on the night he was killed, which she believed to be an engagement ring. When Chucky explains that he never intended on marrying Tiffany, she gets upset and locks him in a playpen and later taunts him with a bride doll. Chucky escapes the playpen and murders Tiffany by electrocuting her in a bathtub.
He then transports her soul into the bride doll so she can feel his pain and says they must retrieve a magical amulet that was buried with his human body in order to transfer their souls into humans again. They decide the closest vessels are Tiffany's neighbor Jesse and his girlfriend Jade. Tiffany calls Jesse and asks him to take the two dolls to Hackensack, New Jersey, where Chucky's body is buried, in exchange for a thousand dollars. Eager to marry Jade, Jesse accepts the offer. Jade's strict uncle, police chief Warren Kincaid, plants a bag of marijuana in Jesse's van to frame him. Chucky and Tiffany rig a trap which embeds several nails into Warren's face, then hide his body within the van. Jesse and Jade begin their trip. The two are later pulled over by Officer Norton, who finds the marijuana in Jesse's van. After Norton returns to his patrol car to report it, Chucky stuffs a shirt into the car's gas tank and lights it on fire. The car explodes with Norton inside, as Jesse and Jade flee the scene.
They both begin to suspect each other of causing the incident. Despite their issues, Jesse and Jade get married. While at a hotel, another couple steals Jesse's wallet as Tiffany secretly watches in disgust. As the thieving couple have sex in their room, Tiffany murders them by causing them to be impaled by glass shards by breaking a mirror above their waterbed. Seeing this, Chucky proposes to Tiffany and the two have sex. The following morning, Jesse and Jade flee with their friend David, who came to the hotel after they both called him separately the previous night, worried the other might be the killer. David informs Jesse and Jade that they are the prime suspects for the deaths, but says he believes them to both be innocent. Upon finding Warren's body, David holds them at gunpoint and alerts a police officer. The dolls come alive, causing David to back onto the highway, where he is run over by a truck. Jesse and Jade drive away with the dolls. Chucky and Tiffany reveal their plan about switching bodies, and explain they need the amulet in order to complete it in time.
They steal an RV to evade the police, where Jesse and Jade instigate a fight between Chucky and Tiffany. In the commotion, Jade kicks Tiffany into the oven, Jesse pushes Chucky out the window, loses control of the RV, resulting in it crashing into a ditch. Chucky forces Jade to take him to his grave while Jesse follows with Tiffany. Jade retrieves the amulet from the casket. Jesse then appears with Tiffany, and they trade hostages, but Chucky throws a knife into Jesse's back and ties up the couple for the ritual. As Chucky begins the incantation, Tiffany kisses him and stabs him with his knife. As the dolls fight, Tiffany collapses and dies after Chucky stabs her in the chest. Jesse knocks Chucky into his own grave with a shovel. Private investigator Lt. Preston arrives and sees Chucky alive in the grave, shocking him. With no other choice, Chucky surrenders, tells Jade to go ahead and shoot him, but warns that he'll be back, declaring "I ALWAYS come back!". Jade grabs Preston's gun and shoots Chucky several times in the chest, killing him.
After contacting the police and declaring the teens innocent, Preston sends the couple on their way home. As he inspects Tiffany's body, she springs awake and starts screaming, giving birth to a baby doll which attacks Preston and the screen cuts to black.
Cast
Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany
Brad Dourif as Chucky (voice)
Katherine Heigl as Jade Kincaid
Nick Stabile as Jesse Miller
Alexis Arquette as Damien Baylock
Gordon Michael Woolvett as David Collins
John Ritter as Chief Warren Kincaid
Lawrence Dane as Lt. Preston
Michael Louis Johnson as Norton
James Gallanders as Russ
Janet Kidder as Diane
Vince Corazza as Officer Bob Bailey
Kathy Najimy as Motel Maid
Park Bench as Stoner
Emily Weedon as Girl at One-Stop
Ben Bass as Lt. Ellis
Roger McKeen as Justice of the Peace
Sandi Stahlbrand as Reporter
Production
Pre-production
After the release of Child's Play 3, Don Mancini and David Kirschner decided that the series required a new direction, and decided against returning the character of Andy Barclay. Work on the film began in 1996, with the working title Child's Play 4: The Return of Chucky, inspired by the release of Scream. Mancini said, "Like most genres, the horror genre goes in cycles and I think we can thank Kevin Williamson and Scream for reinvigorating the market. Over the years, I had been imagining new scenarios for this series. With his previous successes, we knew it was just a matter of time before we'd be bringing Chucky back and David Kirschner and I both felt that it was important to bring him back in a new way -- we wanted to elevate the series and re-invent it, go beyond what we'd done before. And what we've ended up with is—incredibly—part horror, part comedy, part romance and part road movie. It's a really cool blend of the genuinely creepy and the really funny." Ronny Yu was hired to direct the film after Kirschner and Mancini were "amazed" by his film The Bride with White Hair, and was allowed to use his creative freedom and the ability to hire his collaborators Peter Pau and David Wu from Hong Kong. The inspiration to create a girlfriend for Chucky came from David Kirschner after he saw a copy of the classic Bride of Frankenstein in a video store. Mancini loved the idea and created Tiffany. He said, "After all, two dolls running around the country together and killing people a la Natural Born Killer Dolls or Barbie and Clyde is really pretty funny." Mancini chose Tilly as his first choice to play Tiffany, after being impressed with her in Bound and Bullets Over Broadway. Gina Gershon, Tilly's co-star in Bound, encouraged her to take the role. In retrospect, Mancini commented: "Once we introduced Jennifer Tilly's character [...] that brought a certain comedic camp vibe [to the franchise], which I think is kind of historically a hallmark of gay culture," referring to the increasing use of LGBTQ+ characters in later Chucky films and TV series. Several months before production actually began on the film, Kevin Yagher and his team began to create animatronic puppets for Chucky and Tiffany. For Chucky alone, nine different puppets were used.
Filming
Jennifer Tilly provided Tiffany's voice-over dialogue during a three-day recording session held in tandem with Brad Dourif just prior to the start of principal photography. Bride of Chucky was filmed over a twelve week period in and around Toronto, Canada. Over half of the film was shot on the sound stage. Exterior locations that were utilized included the Clifton Hill strip in Niagara Falls, an art deco motel complex on Toronto's waterfront, an old army camp in Oshawa, and numerous rural areas.
Each doll required seven puppeteers to manipulate, a computer playback operator, and a puppet coordinator to act as liaison between the operators and the director. Three puppeteers handled the movement of each doll's facial features which were relayed through the use of a radio-controlled transmitter. All of the dolls' other below-the-head movements were cable-operated by the rest of the puppeteers. The dolls' skin featured a combination of silicone and foam latex, unlike the previous Child's Play films, where the dolls were only made of foam latex, a material that had to be painted in a way that made it very difficult to light.
Brock Winkless, who is among the 17 puppeteers who worked on this film, returned as the puppeteer of Chucky for the last time. Ed Gale and Debbie Lee Carrington performed in-suit as Chucky and Tiffany (credited as Chucky Double and Tiffany Double) respectively during the graveyard scene.
Soundtrack
The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies – "Boogie King"
White Zombie – "Thunder Kiss '65"
Coal Chamber – "Blisters"
Monster Magnet – "See You in Hell"
Judas Priest – "Blood Stained"
Type O Negative – "Love You to Death"
Slayer – "Human Disease"
Stabbing Westward – "So Wrong"
Powerman 5000 – "The Son of X-51"
Bruce Dickinson – "Trumpets of Jericho"
Static-X – "Bled for Days"
Motörhead – "Love for Sale"
Kidneythieves – "Crazy" (Willie Nelson cover)
Graeme Revell – "We Belong Dead"
Score
The film's music was composed and conducted by Graeme Revell, who previously composed the music for Child's Play 2. Revell reused the theme from the second film within the music and it was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.
On March 31, 2023, Enjoy the Ride Records and Back Lot Music released Revell's complete score on digital and in a limited-edition vinyl pressing. It was produced by Mike Matessino and is a 140-gram vinyl 2xLP album with screen printed D side. It includes a gatefold jacket featuring new artwork created by Garreth Gibson, and Voodoo For Dummies replica double-sided insert.
Release
Bride of Chucky was released in North America on October 16, 1998, and grossed $11.8 million on its opening weekend. It has a total North American gross of $32.4 million and another $18.3 million internationally. It is the highest grossing film of the Chucky franchise and the second most financially successful Chucky film in the US.
To promote the film, Chucky made an appearance on the October 12, 1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro as a heel. He interrupted a promo between Gene Okerlund and Rick Steiner and, in addition to asking viewers to watch the film, mentioned that he was hoping for Scott Steiner to win an upcoming match between the brothers.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Bride of Chucky is devoid of any fright and the franchise has become tiresomely self-parodic, although horror fans may find some pleasure in this fourth entry's camp factor." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Lawrence Van Gelder, writing for The New York Times, gave the film a mostly negative review, writing that "the novelty of a bloody horror film built around a malevolent doll carrying the soul of a serial killer has worn thin." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of "D", calling it an "upchucking of cartoonish gore" that "leans heavily on self-referential gags". Xan Brooks of The Independent gave the film a score of two out of five, writing: "Bride of Chucky strings together a series of humorous asides and knee-jerk shock tactics."
The Los Angeles Times John Anderson wrote that "Ronny Yu milks the utter inanity of Chucky's existence for all it's worth and knows the conventions of the genre well enough that horror fans should feel total gratification--in the levels of both mayhem and grotesque humor." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "No one will confuse Bride of Chucky with a classic like Bride of Frankenstein, but anyone looking for nasty laughs will be delighted." Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five stars; he commended its visuals and "witty, pithy script", and wrote: "this fourth entry in the killer doll franchise is by far and away the best, a surprisingly affecting tale of pint-sized love and dismemberment that's remarkably well-done."
Brad Dourif has said Bride of Chucky is his personal favorite film in the series.
Legacy
The film garnered a cult following, marked by its distinctiveness and influence, while also establishing a devoted queer fan base and setting the tone for future installments.
Awards
Sequels
The film was followed by multiple sequels, including Seed of Chucky in 2004 and the TV series Chucky in 2021.
References
External links
1998 films
1998 black comedy films
1998 comedy horror films
1990s slasher films
American black comedy films
American sequel films
American road movies
American parody films
1990s English-language films
Child's Play (franchise) films
Films about runaways
Films set in 1998
Films set in New Jersey
Films shot in Toronto
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films set in hotels
Universal Pictures films
Films directed by Ronny Yu
Films scored by Graeme Revell
Films set in New York (state)
1990s American films
Films about Voodoo
Slasher comedy films